It looks like a new roof will be on the Sunset Avenue School gymnasium after all, with money to replace it coming from the system’s general fund balance and without the support of one board member.

That member, Dr. William Starling, said he was against going ahead with the project, citing use of fund balance as one of the reasons why he couldn’t support the project.

Fixing the roof, an issue brought up just over a week ago, seems to be a must-do issue, particularly for outgoing board members who leave office in less than a month.

“There are a few things that we needed to discuss before we rode off into the sunset,” said outgoing board chairman Dr. Carl Barr at the beginning of a special called meeting of the Clinton City Board of Education early Wednesday morning. “I asked Clyde (Locklear, assistant superintendent of finance/facilities) to get some numbers together and present them to us this morning.”

Barr expressed concern with getting the gym roof replacement taken care of, or at least approved, before his term on the board ends in early July.

“There really is an issue here (at the school) that I feel a certain moral responsibility for,” he told the board. “We have talked about this for a while, and over and over about it. I know financial times right now are dire, but I think this one is important. I talked with Clyde and I really feel that we need to go ahead and try to make this allocation and get this thing done under our watch.”

The issue was brought up at a meeting last week when board member Kathleen Squibb noted that the Sunset gym roof was “falling in,” with no heat nor air conditioning, after the board was presented with requests to approve bleachers for Clinton High School ($55,490) and a driveway project for Sampson Middle School ($67,621).

Squibb also noted that the board had requested the gym’s roof be placed high on a priority list three years ago, but the roof had still not been touched.

Locklear told the board the had an engineer who had worked with the system in the past, look at Sunset gym roof back in 2007.

“At that time, he told us that the existing membrane in the middle section of the roof was deteriorating, and there were also some open metal joints,” he said. “That roof was put on in July of 1992 and had a 10-year warranty. At that time, we put on that center section — so that is about 18 years old and it has pretty well lived its life.”

The engineer also estimated that a total roof replacement (of the roughly 11,000 square foot building) would cost between $140,000 and $200,000.

“There are four skylights that are also on that roof that have experienced some leaking over the years and can be taken off,” notedLocklear. “And they can be reworked or replaced to help with the natural lighting if that is what you wish. He also said that because of the economy, he felt that these numbers (from 2007) were still good. So we would need about $200,000 depending on the type of roof that was selected.”

Barr was adamant that moving forward was the right thing to do.

“We have talked about it for a long time, and I know that it is heck of a lot of money ... but in reflecting on this, and I know that the other item was paving (SMS), and both of them carry with them a certain degree of risk for the children, but the way I saw this was this roofing, which is going to be the most expensive of the two, we possibly have a chance to have our money go further by doing it now,” Barr said.

“I really think we need to make this commitment because something is going to have to be done and it has got to start with the roof. I mean, we can’t do the heating and cooling until we get the roof in proper order.”

Locklear then requested approval from the board. “If it is something that you want to do, I would like for you to authorize us to go ahead and contract with Roof Engineering out of Raleigh to investigate and get us some designs, and from there we would be ready to get some bids and see the final costs and award a bid. Obviously, this could take them several months to evaluate and come up with a design ... I am sure we are closer to the end of the year in getting some work going on that project.”

Board member Victor Fryar made the motion and E.R. Mason seconded.

“Where do you propose to fund this from?” Starling asked Locklear. “If you were going to move to bid, where are you going to fund this from?”

“Right now we are anticipating it to be from the fund balance,” Locklear answered. “... that is at about a million dollars.”

Starling also noted that there should be 10 percent in professional fees (roughly $20,000 in consulting fees) that would have to be added to the total cost of the roof replacement.

“Clyde, how much repair could you do for $20,000?” asked Starling.

“We could probably do a considerable amount on that middle section,” Locklear said. “The outer section is even older; there is a lot of slope on it. His evaluation was to replace it all. If he comes out and says there can be changes made, I will bring that to the board as well. When he did the evaluation three years ago, it was for the deterioration of that middle section of the roof.”

Starling said he would be very reluctant, in these financial times, to commit $200,000 from the fund balance.

“It is essentially a repair item,” Starling said of the roof issue. “The building should be repaired ... I don’t know if this is the right thing to do at this time or not. That is an enormous amount of money coming out of our fund balance for what is essentially a county responsibility to repair the roof. There is a precedent there and I really don’t want to set that precedent.”

Fryar reiterated that the motion had been made.

“I am going to vote against the motion,” Starling said flatly. He was the only board member that voted against the request.

According to assistant county manager Susan Holder, there are state requirements that the county fund school facilities and keep up with the cost of maintenance of schools. However,she noted, if there are repairs to be made, school system officials have to request it. “They can do it by a capital outlay request or include it in a budget item,” she said.

In years past, the county has paid for roof repairs for schools throughout the county. Many years ago, the old Clinton High School (now Sampson Middle) had its roof repaired with some $800,000 in county money.

On Monday night, Sampson County commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed 2010-11 budge; no one from Clinton City Schools was on hand and the roof item is not a part of the system’s request to the county.

“I haven’t had any discussion with anyone from the Clinton City School system about this,” said commissiones chairman Jefferson Strickland. “But that is not to say they we haven’t talked with anyone else — but I haven’t talked with anyone about this and there has been no discussion about that roof from any of the commissioners.”

Strickland also said that if a request, such as this one, was presented to commissioners, they would take their time to consider it.

“We listen to everything that is needed in the county before our budget is done,” he said. “Right now, we are waiting for final approval of the (2010-11) county budget and that (roof) is not in it.”

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.